NYLON Magazine - September 2007 - (Page 147) Ferraby Lionheart is a gentle man who makes even gentler music. That’s enough for him—and us, too. By Luke Crisell. Photographed by Dawn Batson A MIGHTY HEART About a year and a half ago, a good friend of mine sent me a link to Ferraby Lionheart’s MySpace page in an e-mail with the subject line “What do you think of this guy?” After listening to a couple of songs I replied: “This is great, what label is he on?” “He’s not on one! He recorded it in his apartment!” came the quick response. Then a few moments later, another e-mail: “Let’s start a label and sign him!” Well, for a number of reasons, we never did start that label but it’s not as if Lionheart needed us. His self-titled EP, which he released last year, a steady tour schedule, and support from some influential music bloggers has garnered the Silver Lake-based singer-songwriter a record deal (with Nettwerk), and his debut album, Catch The Brass Ring, will be released this month. Lionheart (Ferraby, he was born with, but there’s a convoluted story behind the adopted last name, involving a one-handed drummer called Jacques, an art school in Chicago, some bad memories, and even now that he’s explained it to me I’m not sure I understand), is a soft-spoken, considerate, and remarkably well-dressed man (the kind who can wear cowboy shirts, boots, and hats with aplomb) who was born in Los Angeles, but grew up in Nashville after his parents relocated due to the pollution in the city in the ’80s. “I kind of feel like I can be classified as an L.A. musician because I feel inspired by where I am,” he says. “There’s a very sunny way to the sounds that I make.” That’s an apt description. Catch The Brass Ring picks up where his shining, stripped-down EP left off; it’s a record that is at once sleepy and invigorating, intimate and general, one that evokes long, lazy summer evenings spent on the porch, long bike rides, and swimming in rivers. Warm arrangements (piano, guitar, and, for the first time, brass), and Lionheart’s intoxicating timbre are offset with lyrics that are often tinged with melancholy. Listening to Catch The Brass Ring is like biting into an overripe peach: sweet, sticky, and delicious, but with a slightly sour aftertaste. “It’s not too much of a departure from the EP, I know that,” says Lionheart, with a quiet laugh. “But, to be honest, I didn’t want to blow it. And I feel that the new record explores some areas that none of the musicians that people compare me to [Elliot Smith, Rufus Wainwright, Ben Folds] explore. Not that I’m reinventing anything, but it’s just who I am, it’s the kind of music that I make.” The kind of music Lionheart makes, and the kind of clothes he wears, have led some Internet commentators to suggest that he should concern himself with marketing his sound and image to “sell millions.” “When I read that I found it intriguing because when I started this project that was the farthest thing from my mind,” he says. “Making music that would have any kind of commercial value was not part of the idea at all, I was just making music that would fulfill me creatively. But at the same time I’ve got this real inherent proclivity towards pop melodies. I love classic American pop songwriting and I’ve always tried to capture an element of that in what I do. That said, if I had the choice to make a record that was totally fulfilling and sell 100,000 records or to make a record that was a little bit less satisfying and sell five million I would chose 100,000. As for the way I look, I’m past all that stuff— that’s why I stopped playing rock music [as part of the group Telecast], because I was sick of the rock scene and I don’t care to subscribe to a current trend. As soon as a label starts to tell me they want me to shoot this kind of video or wear this kind of thing is the day they get fired.” jeans by guess by marciano
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